[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 29 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 H. R. 29

  To amend the Public Health Service Act to improve the provision of 
                   medical services to the homeless.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 3, 2013

Ms. Velazquez introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Public Health Service Act to improve the provision of 
                   medical services to the homeless.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Mobile Medical Homeless Health 
Improvement Act of 2013''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The number of people experiencing homelessness on a 
        single night increased by 1.1 percent from 643,067 in January 
        2009 to 649,917 in January 2010. California, New York, and 
        Florida accounted for 40 percent of the total homeless 
        population.
            (2) A total of 79,446 family households, including 241,951 
        persons in families, were homeless as of January 2010. Since 
        2009, the number of homeless families increased 1.2 percent, 
        and the number of homeless persons in families increased 1.6 
        percent.
            (3) The number of people who were chronically homeless, 
        persons with severe disabilities and long-term homeless 
        histories, decreased 1 percent between 2009 and 2010, from 
        110,917 to 109,812.
            (4) Out of those homeless individuals in a shelter, 34.7 
        percent suffered from substance abuse and 26.2 percent had a 
        serious mental illness.
            (5) Mobile medical health care services can effectively 
        reach homeless populations and provide primary care, 
        screenings, dental care, medications, behavioral health care, 
        immunizations, lab tests, case management, benefits assistance 
        and assessments, and triage.
            (6) Mobile medical health care services can provide health 
        care to homeless adults and children in urban, rural, and 
        suburban areas.
            (7) The average cost of a visit to a provider of mobile 
        medical health care services is significantly below the average 
        cost of an emergency department visit. Visiting a mobile 
        medical health care service instead of the emergency department 
        can result in a cost savings of more than $800 per visit.

SEC. 3. IMPROVING ACCESS OF HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS TO MEDICAL SERVICES.

    Subpart I of Part D of title III of the Public Health Service Act 
(42 U.S.C. 254b et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new section:

``SEC. 330M. PARTNERSHIPS TO IMPROVE ACCESS OF HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS TO 
              MEDICAL SERVICES.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary may award grants, contracts, or 
cooperative agreements to eligible entities described in subsection (b) 
to enable such entities to improve access of homeless individuals to 
mobile medical health care services.
    ``(b) Eligible Entities.--To be eligible for a grant, contract, or 
agreement under this section an entity shall--
            ``(1) be a partnership consisting of--
                    ``(A) one or more hospitals; and
                    ``(B) one or more other local health care 
                facilities, including clinics, health centers, primary 
                care facilities, mental health centers, pharmacies, or 
                other mobile medical assets (as such term is defined 
                for purposes of section 319C-2), whether or not such a 
                local health care facility is owned (either in whole or 
                in part) by a partnering hospital described in 
                subparagraph (A); and
            ``(2) submit to the Secretary, an application at such time, 
        in such manner, and containing such information as the 
        Secretary may require.
    ``(c) Use of Funds.--A grant, contract, or agreement awarded under 
this section may be expended only for activities to increase access of 
homeless individuals to mobile medical services, including primary 
health services (as defined in section 330(b)(1)), substance abuse 
services (as defined in section 330(h)(5)), and mental health 
counseling.
    ``(d) Limitation on Awards.--A hospital or health care facility 
shall not be eligible for a grant, contract, or agreement under this 
section with respect to more than one partnership described in 
subsection (b)(1).
    ``(e) Preference.--In awarding a grant, contract, or agreement 
under this section, the Secretary shall give priority to any 
application from a geographic area that has a comparatively high ratio 
of homeless individuals to non-homeless individuals.
    ``(f) Supplement Not Supplant Requirement.--A grant, contract, or 
agreement awarded under this section shall be expended to supplement, 
and not supplant, the expenditures of the eligible entity involved and 
the value of in kind contributions for the delivery of services to 
homeless individuals.
    ``(g) Temporary Continued Provision of Services to Certain Former 
Homeless Individuals.--If any grantee under this section has provided 
services described in this section to a homeless individual under the 
grant, contract, or agreement awarded under this section, such grantee 
may, notwithstanding that the individual is no longer homeless as a 
result of becoming a resident in permanent housing, expend the amount 
so awarded to continue to provide such services to the individual for 
not more than 12 months.
    ``(h) Definitions.--For purposes of this section:
            ``(1) Homeless individual.--The term `homeless individual' 
        has the meaning given such term in section 330(h)(5).
            ``(2) Mobile medical health care services.--The term 
        `mobile medical health care service' means any health care 
        related service provided in a moveable vehicle or a non-
        permanent clinic.''.
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